AI Agents Are Replacing Devs. This CTO Did It Differently.

What happens when a software company building AI tools for HR teams uses those same tools to transform itself? Josh McKenzie, Chief Technology Officer at ELMO Software Group, shares how his team rebuilt their entire software development lifecycle around AI agents and redrew the boundaries of every engineering role. He breaks down how to lead that shift without losing people's trust, why domain expertise is the real SaaS moat, and how the right analytics partner unlocks decisions HR teams have never been able to make before. Key Moments (0:00) Guest Introduction (06:37) The SaaS Moat: What AI Can't Erode (10:23) How ELMO's AI Journey Started (18:42) Why ELMO Chose ThoughtSpot (20:21) Why HR Teams Are the Most Underserved (23:20) From Engineer to CTO Key Quotes " ThoughtSpot was particularly interesting for us… The big thing for us was the Spotter product. Allowing users to bridge that data analyst gap was really important. So, that product has yielded really, really great results for us." - Josh McKenzie "I think it's really important that we instill a culture where it's okay to fail, and it's okay to make a mistake. You want to be vocal about your mistakes so others don't repeat the same mistake." - Josh McKenzie "My belief is you want to focus on your secret sauce. So, what is the thing that makes your business super successful? And for us, that's where we came to look at ThoughtSpot. It has a really nice visual user interface and allows you to create some great dashboards." - Josh McKenzie Mentions Hiring and Onboarding Taking Longer Despite Widespread AI Adoption, New Australian Research Finds: https://elmosoftware.com.au/resources...    • The 5 Levels of AI Coding (Why Most of You...   WireGuard: Next Generation Kernel Network Tunnel | Jason A. Donenfeld: https://www.wireguard.com/papers/wire... Guest Bio As the Chief Technology Officer, Josh McKenzie is responsible for both technical strategy and delivery (build, release and operation) of the ELMO product suite. Josh has a proven track record of successfully leading technology teams and implementing transformative strategies that enhance efficiency, drive growth, and elevate overall technological capabilities. Josh has 20 years of experience in technology, primarily in FinTech. Before joining ELMO in 2024, Josh held executive and senior positions at Lendi Group, OFX, ASX and Westpac. Josh holds a Bachelor of Computer Science from the University of Newcastle and an MBA from the University of Sydney. Music: “The Clermont” by Flash Fluharty Licensed via PremiumBeat, ID: P9IHFMDYNZCKLEFZ #GenerativeAI #DataAnalytics #HRTech #SaaS #SoftwareEngineering #VibeCoding #Coding #HRAnalytics